Introduction to Radar Systems

Radar Transmitter/Receiver

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Outline

Introduction Radar Transmitter Radar Waveform Generator and Receiver Radar Transmitter/Receiver Architecture Summary

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Radar Block Diagram

We will cover this particular part of the radar in this lecture Propagation Medium Target Cross Section Waveform Generator

Transmitter Duplexer Receiver

Antenna

A/D

Pulse Compression

Doppler Processing

Detection

Tracking & Parameter Estimation

Console / Display Recording

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Simplified Radar Transmitter/Receiver System Block Diagram

High Power Transmit Sections
(100s of W to 1s MW) High Power Amplifier Duplexer Filter Waveform Generator

Low Power Transmit Section

(10s of mW to 1 W)

Low Noise Amplifier Filter Receiver A/D

00101111010

Low Power Receive Sections

(W to mW)

Radar transmitter and receiver can be divided into two important subsystems
High power transmitter sections Low power sections
Radar waveform generator and receiver
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Radar Range Equation Revisited

Parameters Affected by Transmitter/Receiver

Radar range equation for search (S/N = signal to noise ratio)

Pav A e t s S/N = 4 R 4 k Ts L

S/N of target can be enhanced by

Higher transmitted power Pav Lower system losses L Minimize system temperature Ts

Pav = average power e = antenna area ts = scan time for Pav = average power = radar cross section = solid angle searched R = target range Ts = system temperature L = system loss

The design of radar transmitter/receiver affects these three parameters directly

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Outline

Introduction Radar Transmitter Overview

High Power Amplifier

Radar Waveform Generator and Receiver Radar Transmitter/Receiver Architecture Summary

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Power Amplification Process

Driver Amplifier(s) Low Power Signal (from WFG)
PA 1 PA 1

PA 2 PA 2

HPA 3 HPA 3

PA = Power Amplifier HPA = High Power Amplifier

Amplification occurs in multiple stages

Driver amplifiers High power amplifier

Requirement for power amplifier

Low noise Minimum distortion to input signal

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Method to Obtain Higher Power

High Power Combiner HPA

Antenna
HPA

Antenna
Driver Amp. Waveform Generator

Driver Amp.

Waveform Generator

1 Single amplifier transmitter Single antenna

2 Parallel combining of HPAs Single antenna

Higher transmitted power can be obtained by combining multiple amplifiers in parallel

Lower efficiency (due to combiner losses) Increased complexity

HPA = High Power Amplifier

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Types of High Power Amplifiers

Vacuum tube amplifiers and solid state amplifiers

Vacuum Tube Amplifiers Output Power Cost per Unit Cost per Watt Size Applications
High (10 kW to 1 MW) High ($10s K to $300 K) $1 3 Bulky and heavy

Solid State Amplifiers

Low (10s to 100s W) Low ($100s ) Varied Small foot print

Dish antenna Passive array

Active array Digital array

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Average Power Output Versus Frequency

Tube Amplifiers versus Solid State Amplifiers

106 Tube Amplifiers Dominate Region of Competition 102 Solid State Amplifiers Dominate 1

Average Power (Watts)

10

10-2 .1 1 10 Frequency (GHz) 100 1000

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Power Amplifier Examples

Tube amplifiers
Klystrons Travelling wave tubes

Solid State amplifiers

Solid state power transistors

Criteria for choosing high power amplifier

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Average power output as a function of frequency Total bandwidth of operation Duty cycle Gain Mean time between failure (MTBF) etc
MIT Lincoln Laboratory

MIT/LL Millstone Hill Radar

Klystron Tubes (Vacuum Devices)

Output device Center Frequency Bandwidth Peak Power Average Power Pulse Width Beam Width Antenna Diameter

Klystrons (2) 1295 MHz 8 MHz 3 MW 120 kW 1 ms 0.6o 84 ft

Originally designed in early 1960s Originally designed in early 1960s

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How Big are High Power Klystron Tubes ?

Millstone Hill Radar Transmitter Room
Waveguide output Varian X780 Klystron Varian X780 Klystron $400,000/tube $400,000/tube 7 ft (height) x 1ft (diameter) 7 ft (height) x 1ft (diameter) 600 lbs 600 lbs 3% duty cycle 3% duty cycle 42 dB gain 42 dB gain 600W peak input drive level 600W peak input drive level Flex Waveguide Output flanges 200 antenna waveguide

Waveguide Harmonic Filter

Spare Tube

Vacuum Pump

Water Coolant Hoses, 70 Gal/min

Power Amplifier Room

1 kW Peak Solid State Driver Amp.

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Photograph of Traveling Wave Tubes

Another Type of Tube Amplifiers
Center Freq : 3.3 GHz Bandwidth : 400 MHz Peak Power : 160 kW Duty Cycle : 8 % Gain : 43 dB S Band VTS-5753 COUPLED CAVITY TWT X Band VTX-5681C COUPLED CAVITY Center Freq : 10.0 GHz Bandwidth : 1 GHz TWT Peak Power : 100 kW Duty Cycle : 35 % Gain : 50 dB

~ 8 ft

S-Band Transmitter
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Example of Solid State Transmitter

Radar Surveillance Technology Experimental Radar (RSTER)

Driver Amp Module

Power Amp Module

14 channels with 140 kW total 14 channels with 140 kW total peak power peak power
8 kW average power 8 kW average power

Each channel is supplied by a Each channel is supplied by a power amplifier module power amplifier module
10 kW peak power 10 kW peak power
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Solid State Active Phased Array Radar PAVE PAWS

PAVE PAWS
First all solid state active aperture electronically steered phased array radar UHF Band 1792 active transceiver T/R modules, 340 W of peak power each

Courtesy of Raytheon. Used with permission.

Courtesy of Raytheon. Used with permission.

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Outline

Introduction Radar Transmitter Overview

High Power Amplifier Duplexer

Radar Waveform Generator and Receiver Radar Transmitter/Receiver Architecture Summary

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Radar Transmitter/Receiver Timeline

Pulse Width

High Power Pulse

Receive Window A/D Samples

Receiver
Radar PRI

Duplexer Switch

Transmit

Receive

Transmit

Receive

Sensitive radar receiver must be isolated from the powerful radar transmitter
Transmitted power typically 10 kW 1 MW Receiver signal power in 10s W 1 mW

Isolation provided by duplexer switching

PRI = Pulse Repetition Interval

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Duplexer Function
Antenna Duplexer HPA

Transmitter ON
Connect antenna to transmitter with low loss Protect receiver during transmit interval

Limiter/ Limiter/ Switch Switch

Receiver

Transmit Interval

Receiver ON
Connect Antenna to receiver with low loss (transmitter must be turned off in this interval) Limiter/switch is used for additional protection against strong interference

Antenna Duplexer

X
Limiter/ Limiter/ Switch Switch

HPA

Receiver

Receive Interval
HPA = High Power Amplifier
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Outline

Introduction Radar Transmitter Overview Radar Waveform Generator and Receiver Radar Transmitter/Receiver Architecture Summary

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Simplified Functional Descriptions

Waveform Generator
Waveform Generation

Amplify

Upconvert

Filtering

To Antenna

Carrier Signal

10011110010 A/D Amplify Downconvert Filtering

From Antenna

Receiver

Waveform generator and receiver share several similar functions

Amplification, filtering and frequency conversion

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Frequency Conversion Concepts

Waveform Generator
Frequency Upconversion Baseband to L Band Waveform 0.1 GHz
Up Converter

Receiver
Frequency Downconversion L Band to Baseband L Band 1.5 GHz
Down Converter

L Band 1.5 GHz

0.1 GHz To A/D

Local Oscillator 1.4 GHz

Local Oscillator 1.4 GHz

Upconverter translates the waveform frequency to a higher frequency Reason:

Waveform generation less expensive at lower frequency

Downconverter translates the receive frequency to a lower frequency Reason:

Dynamic range of A/D converter higher at lower frequency

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Simplified System Block Diagram

Waveform Generator and Receiver
Waveform Generator
HPA Duplexer 1.5 GHz (L-Band) Filtering Up converter 1.4 GHz Local Oscillator 1.5 GHz (L-Band) Filtering Low Noise Amplifier 1.4 GHz 0.1 GHz Down converter
0010110100

0.1 GHz Filtering

Waveform Generation

Filtering

A/D

Receiver

This example shows only a single stage conversion

In general, design based on multiple stage of frequency conversion are employed

Multiple stages of amplification and filtering are also used

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Outline

Introduction Radar Transmitter Overview Radar Waveform Generator and Receiver Radar Transmitter/Receiver Architecture Summary

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Dish Radars

ALCOR

ALTAIR

TRADEX

MMW

MILLSTONE

HAYSTACK/HAX

KWAJALEIN

Duplexer

Transmitter

Waveform Generator

001011110100

Receiver

A/D

Conventional radar transmitter/receiver design employed

MIT Lincoln Laboratory

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Radar Antenna Architecture Comparison

Dish Radar Passive Array Radar Active Array Radar

T/R Modules

O PR

Very low cost Frequency diversity

Beam agility Effective radar resource management Higher cost Requires custom transmitter and high-power phase shifters High loss

N CO

Dedicated function Slow scan rate Requires custom transmitter High loss

Beam agility Effective radar resource management Low loss High cost More complex cooling

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Active Phased Array Radar

HPA T/R Low Power Section

Subarray #1

Duplexer Receiver

T/R T/R

Active T/R Module

Subarray #2

T/R

Waveform Generator
001011110100

A/D

T/R

T/R

Transmit/Receive function distributed to each module on array

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Large Phased Arrays

Active Array Radar Passive Array Radar SPY-1 4100 elements THAAD Radar
25,344 elements

Courtesy of Raytheon. Used with permission.

Passive Array Radar Cobra Dane

15.3K active elements

Courtesy of Raytheon. Used with permission. Courtesy of Raytheon. Used with permission.
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Digital Array Radar Architecture

Digital on Receive
Subarray #1

Analog T/R

Waveform Generator A/D

Subarray #2

Analog T/R

001011100 111100001

A/D

Multichannel 111100001 Digital One Digital A/D Digital Beams Beam Beamformer (Analog Array)

011110100

Analog T/R

A/D

Each active analog T/R module is followed by an A/D for immediate digitization
Multiple received beams are formed digitally by the digital beamformer
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Digital Array Example

Digital On Receive

RSTER (14 Digital Receivers)

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Digital Array Radar Architecture II

Digital on Transmit & Receive
001110010100 Waveform Information

Waveform Control

Analog T/R Digital T/R

Analog T/R Digital T/R

001011100 111100001

011110100

Multichannel Digital Beamformer

Digital Beams

Analog T/R Digital T/R

Both waveform generation and receiver digitization are performed within each T/R module
Complete flexibility on transmit and receive
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Summary

Radar transmit function is accomplished in two stages:

Waveform generator creates low power waveform signal and upconverts it to RF Transmitter amplifies waveform signal

Radar receiver performs filtering, amplification and downconversion functions

Final received signal is fed to an A/D for digitization

Radar transmit/ receive architecture is highly dependent on the antenna type

Centralized architecture: dish radars, passive array radars Distributed architecture: active array and digital array radars

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References

Skolnik, M., Introduction to Radar Systems, New York, McGraw-Hill, 3rd Edition, 2001 Skolnik, M., Radar Handbook, New York, McGraw-Hill, 2nd Edition, 1990

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